Sunday, November 26, 2023

Thousands march across globe to denounce violence against women

Washington (AFP) – Thousands of people took to the streets across the world on Saturday to condemn violence against women on the international day highlighting the crime.



Issued on: 25/11/2023 \
Marches in Italy against violence on women came after the killing of a 22-year-old university student shook the country 
© Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

On the UN-designated International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, protesters marched in Europe and the Americas.

"The scourge of gender-based violence continues to inflict pain and injustice on too many," US President Joe Biden said in a statement.

"An estimated one in three women globally will experience physical violence, rape, or stalking at some point in their lifetimes. It’s an outrage."

"Particularly in areas of conflict, countless women and girls suffer at the hands of perpetrators who commit gender-based violence and use rape as a weapon of war."


In Guatemala, candles wrote out "438" -- the number of women killed so far this year 
© Johan ORDONEZ / AFP

In Guatemala, protesters kicked off commemorations on Friday evening, placing candles to write out 438 -- the number of women killed so far this year.

In the Chilean capital of Santiago, some 1,000 protesters marched through the streets Friday night, chanting "Not one step backward" and demanding action by the government to protect women.

A women's advocacy group estimates that 40 femicides have occurred in the country this year.

A woman takes part in a demonstration to demand justice for the victims of femicide in Guatemala City on November 25, 2023
 © Maria Jose BONILLA / AFP

Along Rio de Janeiro's famed Copacabana Beach, protesters lined up 722 pairs of women's shoes, from high-heels to sneakers, each pair before a woman's name to represent the femicides recorded in 2022 -- the highest number since 2019, according to the non-governmental Brazilian Forum on Public Safety.

And in Argentina, demonstrators -- including those concerned by the election of incoming president Javier Milei -- in Buenos Aires combined a protest on violence against women with a show of support for the Palestinian people.

Milei has suggesting eliminating the Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity -- in charge of preventing gender violence -- and has taken hardline stances on issues including abortion and equal pay

Italy murder

In Italy, which has been shaken by the murder of a 22-year-old university student allegedly by her former boyfriend, some 50,000 people, according to the AGI news agency, demonstrated in Rome, where the Colosseum was to be lit up in red later on Saturday.

The country has been horrified by the case of Giulia Cecchettin, who went missing for a week as she was due to receive her degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Padua.

Thousands of people attended a demonstration in Rome
 © Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

Her body was eventually found in a gully about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Venice, and her former boyfriend, 22-year-old Filippo Turetta, was arrested in Germany.

"This year... takes on particularly important connotations for us... for those in this country who care about the rights, claims and emancipation of all women, following yet another femicide, the killing of Giulia Cecchettin," said Luisa Loduce, a 22-year-old librarian.

In the year to November 12, there have been 102 murder cases with female victims in Italy, 82 of them by family members or current or former partners, according to the interior ministry.

Marches took place in countries around the globe on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 
© MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP

In Turkey, some 500 women gathered in the Sisli district in Istanbul, as riot police stood by, unfurling banners reading "We will not remain silent" and "Women are united and fighting against male-state violence."

Protesters also took to the streets in Ankara.

'Educate your boys'

In France, several thousand people, many wearing purple, the color of women and gender equality, wove through the chilly streets of Paris and other cities, carrying signs reading: "One rape every six minutes in France" and "Protect your girls, educate your boys".

"We don't want to count the dead any more," Maelle Lenoir, an official from the All of Us activist group, told reporters, urging the government to devote more money to eradicating violence against women.

In Turkey, protesters marched in Ankara and Istanbul 
© Adem ALTAN / AFP

France has recorded 121 women killed so far this year in femicides, the killing of a woman due to her gender, compared with 118 in 2022, according to government data.

Leonore Maunoury, 22, said that the justice system needed to be changed to deal effectively with the phenomenon, as she marched in the eastern city of Strasbourg.
Protesters marched in Paris and other cities across France 
© Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT / AFP

"Sexual violence is difficult to prove. Many cases are dismissed. The justice system is ill-adapted" to deal with the issue, she said.

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© 2023 AFP


Thousands march in France to condemn violence against women

Several thousand people marched in France on Saturday to condemn violence against women on the international day to combat the scourge.



Issued on: 25/11/2023 -
A woman holds a placard that reads "Christmas arrives within the murder of 15 women", in reference to the rate of femicides in France, during a demonstration on the International day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in Paris on November 25, 2023. 
© Geoffroy Van der Hasselt, AFP

By: NEWS WIRES

Many wearing purple, the colour of women and gender equality, demonstrators wove through the chilly streets of Paris and other cities, carrying signs reading: "One rape every six minutes in France" and "Protect your girls, educate your boys".

"We don't want to count the dead any more," Maelle Lenoir, an official from the All of Us activist group, told reporters, urging the government to devote more money to eradicating violence against women.

France has recorded 121 women killed so far this year in femicides, the killing of a woman due to her gender, compared with 118 in 2022, according to government data.

"Continued violence against women is not inevitable," President Emmanuel Macron said in a video posted on social media earlier on Saturday.
"We must put an end to it and we will".

Leonore Maunoury, 22, said that the justice system needed to be changed to deal effectively with the phenomenon, as she marched in the eastern city of Strasbourg.

"Sexual violence is difficult to prove. Many cases are dismissed. The justice system is ill-adapted" to deal with the issue, she said.

(AFP)






Thousands rally in Italy over violence against women after woman's killing that outraged the country

GIADA ZAMPANO
Updated Sat, November 25, 2023

ROME (AP) — Tens of thousands took to the streets of Italy’s main cities on Saturday to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, just as an Italian man suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend was extradited from Germany.

The slaying of 22-year-old university student Giulia Cecchettin, allegedly at the hands of her former boyfriend, sparked outrage across Italy, where on average one woman is killed every three days.

Suspect Filippo Turetta, 21, landed at the Venice airport around mid-morning on Saturday. He was immediately transferred to a prison in the northern city of Verona to face questions in the investigation into Cecchettin’s death, Italian media reported.

Cecchettin had disappeared after meeting Turetta for a burger at a shopping mall near Venice, just days before she was to receive her degree in biomedical engineering. The case gripped Italy.

Her body was found on Nov. 18 — covered by black plastic bags in a ditch near a lake in the foothills of the Alps. Turetta was arrested the following day in Germany.

Cecchettin’s killing has sparked an unprecedented wave of grief and anger in Italy, where many women say patriarchal attitudes are still entrenched.

Data from the Italian Interior Ministry show that 106 women have so far been killed in Italy this year, 55 of them allegedly by a partner or former partner.

Italy’s RAI state TV reported that in the days since Cecchettin’s body was found, calls to a national hotline for women fearing for their safety at the hands of men have jumped from some 200 to 400 a day — including from parents of young women.

“Rome has been invaded … we are 500,000,” said activists from Non Una Di Meno (Not one less), the anti-violence feminist association that organized the rally in the capital.

Many of the demonstrations that took place across Italy remembered Cecchettin and her striking story.

“Male violence is something that personally touched me and all of us, at every age,” said Aurora Arleo, a 24-year-old student, who went to the demonstration from Ladispoli, a town close to Rome. “We have united also in the name of Giulia, because her story struck us, and I hope it will change something.”



Monica Gilardi, 46, noted that her generation was probably “the one that suffered in silence more than others,” despite having experienced years of women’s battles and emancipation.

“Now that I’ve reached a different awareness, I hope to be able to share it with my sisters,” she said.

Thousands of men of all ages also responded to the call for joining Saturday's initiatives against gender violence.

“I think it was important to be here today,” said Leonardo Sanna, 19, who took part in the Rome demonstration with female friends. “It’s not my first time, but I believe that Giulia’s death changed in part the perception of this problem among youths. And I hope this is not going to be short-lived.”

Earlier this week, the Italian parliament approved new measures to clamp down on violence against women, following unanimous support from the two chambers.

Among the measures being introduced is a campaign in schools to address sexism, machismo and psychological and physical violence against women.

“A human society that aspires to be civilized cannot accept, cannot endure, this string of attacks on women and murders,” Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella said on Saturday. “We cannot just counter this with intermittent indignation.”

In his message to mark the battle against gender violence, Pope Francis said it is a plague that must be rooted out from society and called for educational action.

“Violence against women is a poisonous weed that plagues our society and must be pulled up from its roots,” the Pope wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.

“These roots grow in the soil of prejudice and of injustice; they must be countered with educational action that places the person, with his or her dignity, at the center,” he added.

Violence against women and girls remains one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world. According to the most recent U.N. data, globally, over 700 million women — almost one in three — have been subjected to physical and sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once in their life.

Thousands of people also rallied in Paris on Saturday to demand more government action to prevent gender violence. Protesters marched behind a large banner saying “women are angry, stop violence: actions and resources, now.”

France has taken steps in recent years to toughen punishment for rape and sexual misconduct. But while President Emmanuel Macron has promised to tackle deadly domestic abuse and other violence against women, activists say France still has a long way to go.

___

Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet contributed to this report from Paris.















Italy Women Violence
Women show keys as they gather on the occasion of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov.25, 2023. Thousands of people are expected to take the streets in Rome and other major Italian cities as part of what organizers call a "revolution" under way in Italians' approach to violence against women, a few days after the horrifying killing of a college student allegedly by her resentful ex-boyfriend sparked an outcry over the country's "patriarchal" culture.
 (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)













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